I honestly didn't want to put any of my little blurbs at the beginning and end of this story because I thought it would take away from the feeling of the story. However, I felt compelled to write this. I would like to thank EVERYONE who has commented and reviewed this fic on both Fanfictiondotnet and the Akki no Ai LJ community. I really appreciate all of you. I was really amazed by the 9 reviews for chapter 5! I'd respond to you all individually, but that would be a lot more than I wanted to write outside of the actual fic. Thank you all so very much. (And to answer the concerns, it's only SasuSaku if you make it look that way. I'm leaving it up to you guys because I really don't care how you take it. The focus is on Gaara and Naruto, remember?) You're feedback is what keeps me writing. Thanks.
Shikamaru certainly didn't expect to be called to the Hokage's office so early in the morning on a Sunday. He had no class to teach and new missions were never assigned on Sundays. On top of that, they wouldn't give him anything that could keep him from preparing for his class tomorrow. That had been an agreement between the Godaime and himself. So, it was apparent that the Chuunin was utterly confused when he stepped into the Hokage's office that warm partially cloudy morning—the kind Shikamaru liked best.
"Hokage-sama," he addressed the woman staring down at papers from behind her desk.
"Ah, you made it. Good. Good. Go ahead and sit down."
Shikamaru nodded and took a seat in front of the desk. He waited for her to tell him why he was called there. All the Hokage did was stare down at the papers and wrinkle her nose at them. He waited. She sighed and rubbed her brown. And waited. The blonde woman let out a loud sigh. And waited some more. Eventually, she looked back up at the boy who was growing very impatient. She realized she was just wasting time, but she was also having a hard time admitting that this 13 year old boy could figure the whole mess out when she could not. Tsunade studied his eyes for a moment before handing him the papers she had been looking over.
"What do you make of these?"
Shikamaru scanned over the papers. They were information about demon vessels after that. A few pages later, the boy found information about the sealed demons themselves and a page about all the demons' activities prior to being sealed. After a couple pages of that Shikamaru was surprised to find extensive records on all of Naruto's day-to-day activities beginning at birth. The last few pages were medical records of Naruto's and Sabaku no Gaara. Shikamaru was a bit sad to say that he wasn't surprised that he was asked to look over these.
"I think it's probably a little more than I want to know about Naruto," he sighed, and quickly added a "ma'am" before he got smacked.
"Be serious," the Hokage yelled. "A life of one of your former classmates and a very loyal Konoha Ninja is on the line here! We have no time for jokes! How dare you make light of this terrible situation!"
Shikamaru forced himself back further into the chair. He tried to sink into it at the Hokage was furiously scolding him. He rambled off apologies to try calming her down. He hadn't meant to come off as a terrible person for making the sarcastic joke. It was just his personality. He did care about what happened to Naruto, but it wasn't in his nature to be so actively involved in something.
After Tsunade worked out her rage and frustrations, she because chillingly quiet. It was as if she was pondering if Shikamaru was the right person to give this to. It seemed as though she had no faith in him and didn't trust him at all. The silence was just eating away at the boy. He decided to end it, but so did the Hokage.
"Now, this is something that is important to keep confidential and it may surprise you… Naruto has a demon sealed in him… I hope you understand…" Tsunade started but stopped after Shikamaru's first sentence.
"I'll do my best to help Naruto and his demon. You can count on me. I promise. I may be a lazy coward but it was my responsibility in the first place. I was leading the mission. If I had been stronger, none of this would have happened and Naruto and Sasuke both would be unharmed. As such, it is also my responsibility to make sure that they both recover properly," Shikamaru said with a determination she had only seen in one other boy his age who wanted to be the next Hokage.
Tsunade accepted this. She nodded to him that he could leave. Shikamaru then left the office to head back to his favorite spot. He kept the files safe under his arm as he made the short journey to that special bench of his.
When he arrived, he gave the papers a once over and sat and thought. Shikamaru decided after a minute of serious thought that he should examine every single detail in the records to find the link to healing Naruto. He read the documents so much that he believed that they were causing him to develop a headache. He needed a break, and the sun was starting to set. He decided to go visit his subject of study.
Gaara was sitting on the edge of his own bed when Shikamaru arrived in Naruto's hospital room. He slowly looked up at the Konoha Chuunin which in turn caused Shikamaru to nearly jump out of his shoes in fear. He distinctly recalled the last time he had met up with this boy in a hospital room. Shikamaru and Naruto barely prevented Gaara from killing Rock Lee. Barely. And now here he was, in yet another hospital room alone—with the exception of Naruto—with that murderer.
"The nurse said Uzumaki-kun didn't have any visitors," Shikamaru explained.
He was almost out the door when Gaara spoke up, "He doesn't really. I'm a patient."
Shikamaru nodded at the Sand-nin, "I see."
The pony-tailed boy debated inside himself for a while. Should he stay to observe Naruto? Should he leave and try to figure things out on his own? While comparing the positives and negatives in his mind, Gaara had managed to walk up into his face without him even realizing it. Some Chuunin he was! Shikamaru let his gaze run to Gaara's eyes. The redhead seemed to be testing him in some way. He felt uncomfortable under the studious stare of green eyes. What was Gaara's objective?
"Why do you have files on Naruto," questioned Gaara in a menacing voice.
"Hokage-sama gave them to me. It's a mission that was assigned me this morning."
"What's the mission?"
"Figure out how to get the Kyuubi no Kitsune to heal Naruto."
"You know about Naruto's demon? Since when?"
"Since I first met him. It was pretty simple to figure out if you listened to the adults. What really bothered me is what I found when I did some digging when I was bored. Did you know that his father sealed the demon in to his own son?"
"Impossible. The Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi."
"You're troublesome. That's precisely who I am talking about."
"I'm troublesome? You're the annoying one, barging in here demanding to just sit and watch Naruto so you can get some clue. What if I wanted to sleep?"
"I was going to leave…" Shikamaru explained.
"Now you don't care about Naruto enough to face me?"
"That's not what I meant. I'm doing everything I can to help Naruto recover," Shikamaru defended himself.
"I don't believe you," Gaara growled.
"I don't have time for this. Naruto's life is on the line here. Stop being a bother," Shikamaru sighed.
"I don't see how I'm a bother since I can provide you with first hand information about carrying a demon inside of me," Gaara sneered.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Well then?"
"Well then what?"
"Aren't you going to tell me or are you just going to let Naruto waste away?"
Shikamaru was getting painfully bothered by this whole conversation. He just wanted to get the new information so that he can get Naruto healed faster. Gaara just seemed to be acting like an over-protective bastard against Shikamaru. The redhead didn't trust him, that was certain, but he could at least try to so they could both see this whole mess over with. Gaara glared at him and Shikamaru just rolled his eyes.
"Fine, I'll tell you anything that may be of use," Gaara began.
After an hour or so, Gaara stopped talking about everything that had happened to him in the past few days involving his demon. When he finished, he returned to his bed and sat on the edge as he had been previously sitting. Many solutions popped into Shikamaru's head, each dangerous, improbable, and completely unlikely to actually work. Even so, Shikamaru had an inkling about a certain scenario that popped into his head. Maybe it was just something to laugh at that was more impossible than flying cows in Suna.
"Can demons communicate with each other even if they are sealed within different persons," Shikamaru asked into the silence.
Gaara looked up at the Chuunin confused. He wasn't sure. He'd never thought to ask Shukaku about that kind of thing. There was never the need to do so. Perhaps there was some way that demons could talk to each other from inside their vessels. Gaara thought on this for a while before having said thoughts disrupted by a loud yawn from the other side of the room. Shikamaru was patting his open mouth and squeezing his eyes closed.
"Well," the brunette started, "You figure it out. It's late and I have a class to teach tomorrow morning. Contact me or the Hokage-sama if you come up with anything. Its been lovely."
And of course by lovely, Shikamaru meant troublesome, for that's what should be in place of any adjective that leaves his mouth.
While Shikamaru made sure everything for tomorrow's class on the henge no jutsu was fully prepared, Gaara sat up thinking and trying to get Shukaku to talk to him. He was just desperate now. Incredulously, Shikamaru had actually given Gaara some hope that Naruto would survive his whole mess. That just meant that Gaara had to try even harder. He urged himself to be the one to save Naruto. He already owed him his life. He'd feel beyond guilty if Naruto went through all that trouble for him and Gaara didn't give the blonde boy anything back in return. He'd feel certainly awful about himself.
So, he would try all night just to talk to Shukaku, and wear himself thin doing so for something that he wasn't even sure was possible, but was the strongest lead yet on saving Naruto from the pain he was suffering.
